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DEFCON 20: Bigger Monster, Weaker Chains: The National Security Agency and the Constitution

Christiaan008 · 10.4K views · 2012-11-18 · 48:52

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Overview

A DEFCON 20 panel with NSA whistleblower William Binney, journalist James Bamford and ACLU lawyers on the NSA's mass collection of communications and its conflict with the Constitution.

On Hacker News

HN points to it as a prescient talk that discussed, in 2012, much of what Snowden's leaks later confirmed.

Recommended by 1 HN people across 1 months · HN mentions 2012–2019

Topics

Privacy, surveillance & cybercrimeFree speech, censorship & civil libertiesSecurity & hacking
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nsamass surveillancewilliam binneyacludefcon

What people said

jmkni · 2015-06 · Recommendation

A year before Snowden took off to Hong Kong, William Binney was on a panel at Def Con where NSA surveillance was talked about at length, worth a watch - [VIDEO] lot of the stuff which was later leaked by Snowden is discussed here, nice to see Binney vindicated. Interestingly, the NSA facility in Hawaii where Snowden was working at the time is mentioned by name. I often wonder if this Defcon talk inspired him to do what he did.

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jmkni · 2019-09 · Reference

I remember the DefCon 20 talk, Bigger Monsters, Weaker Chains with William Binney - [VIDEO] This was in 2012, 2013 was when Snowden did what he did. I always wondered if he saw this talk and was motivated by it.

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dram · 2013-06 · Reference

The NSA is wholesale collecting data and later using a secret court to authorize them to query their own databases [1]. PRISM is not just an interface. It is officially known as SIGAD US-984XN which means it intercepts and collects electronic communications. [1] Bamford, Binney and the ACLU at Defcon 2012 [VIDEO]

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Sources

Video by Christiaan008, played through YouTube.

Data and selection notes

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HN Library: HackerTube export (2026-10-31) and open-index/hacker-news. Upstream summaries and classifications may contain AI errors.

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